Did Christianity cause the crash?
Hanna Rosin has a fascinating piece in the current edition of The Atlantic about how the so-called Word of Faith movement and its prosperity teaching may have contributed to the materialist boom before the financial bust.
She writes: "America's mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated--one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it's still going strong."
Comment number 1.
At 12:53 13th Nov 2009, graham veale wrote:You mean it wasn't Stafford Carson's comments on the devil?
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Comment number 2.
At 16:00 13th Nov 2009, john dynes wrote:The WORD OF GREED!.
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Comment number 3.
At 16:20 13th Nov 2009, upsidedownworld wrote:The SEED of GREED!
Sow that seed!
(Brought to you courtesy of Rory & Wendy and the other god tv hucksters)
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Comment number 4.
At 16:27 13th Nov 2009, petermorrow wrote:It is of course quite possible that the teaching of the Word Faith/Prosperity gospel in influencing much of the evangelical mainstream has caused a shift in mindset, a shift towards greed, expectation, the right to wealth (and possibly worse), but the idea that this teaching is ‘Christianity’ is one which should be dismissed (almost) without thought.
However, when Rome is burning...
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Comment number 5.
At 17:12 13th Nov 2009, graham veale wrote:Do what the Romans do...?
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Comment number 6.
At 17:19 13th Nov 2009, petermorrow wrote:Perhaps it was a bit obscure, Graham!
I was thinking of Quo Vadis!
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Comment number 7.
At 22:06 13th Nov 2009, rochcarlie wrote:Sounds fair to me, more inclusive and democratic. Traditionally its been the churches and the clergy who become rich.
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Comment number 8.
At 11:55 16th Nov 2009, Peter wrote:An interesting theory William.
The so called "credit crunch" was of course caused by too much and too easily available credit. however,I know of at least one church in Belfast that arranged loans with it's members in order to pay for their very elaborate new building. Is this type of thing going on in the US ? If to a large extent it is, then it certainly would have contributed to the economic downturn.
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Comment number 9.
At 14:38 20th Nov 2009, Chris wrote:A perfect example of self-endorsing, self-propagating false doctrine -- the individual victims are blamed for not having enough faith, and the state/country/world for not being faithful to (the Word of Life concept of) God. I have seen this dangerous movement at work in Latin America, where the poor are instructed to put a "seed of faith" (that this is monetary is assumed) in an envelope in order to prove to God that you're worthy to own a digital camera. Must make God's heart break.
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